Contact with children who may have chickenpox confers protection against shingles to adults.

2002 NOV 6 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - Exposure to varicella-zoster virus by frequent contact with children appears to protect adults against herpes-zoster outbreaks, according to a report in the Lancet.

"The role of immune boosting is an important issue for varicella vaccination programs, since a reduction in childhood varicella will result in fewer exogenous exposures to varicella-zoster virus, which could lead to increased incidence of zoster among unvaccinated adults," explained Sara L. Thomas and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Using data obtained from 22 medical practices, the investigators determined the extent of possible varicella contact for 244 patients with zoster and 485 controls without zoster matched by age, sex, and medical practice.

Increasing exposure to children provided increasing protection against zoster. The subjects with the least amount of contact had a fivefold greater risk of developing zoster outbreak compared with the subjects with the greatest amount of contact.

The authors state that "living with children seems to protect against zoster largely by increasing access to a range of other children outside the household and that the protection afforded by contacts with many children seems to be largely explained by exposure to varicella-zoster virus. Interestingly, occupational contact with many well children (for example, through teaching) ...